Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 7: The Roundabout
Scene 9: The Teachers
7.9
The Teachers
Roundabout Station was dominated by the oeast - who shared common ancestry with the heethed. Oeast were considerably taller, on average slightly less tall than humans, and had far more human features. About the only difference was their hair was more fur-like and their cat-like ears placed higher on their heads.
All of the other species were represented on the rambling, ancient space station, although Pel and the marines never caught a glimpse of the oules, but by far the majority were oeast. There was little evidence that the caste system that prevailed throughout most of the Oulheadhry was tolerated by the oeast here. This was their place.
And the heartbeat of this spacebound city of well over a million people was the games.
Gaming fields were scattered throughout the sprawling space station, but the grand tournaments were held in what was referred to as the Sacred Quarter. General tickets to the Sacred Quarter for the great contests were quite expensive, but a full quarter of the general seating was freely available to oeast (and oeast only) by a free lottery.
Pel paid 1,500 eadhels to procure a private box for himself and the marines that would allow them to view the games both close up and in a secure location.
The private box came with a guided tour of the Sacred Quarter, which was the primary reason Pel had parted with that much money. Another reason was that the Sacred Quarter was located in one of the oldest parts of Roundabout Station.
As they walked deeper into the station, there was a definite feeling of walking deeper into antiquity. There were areas that were closed off due to the floors being too dangerous to walk on. Rust was evident in some areas (not a welcome sight on a space station). The construction became more and more primitive, with more exposed welds, more exposed bolts and rivets, and older building materials.
Before reaching the Sacred Quarter, the away team passed out of smooth, plasteel construction into more and more sections made from ancient metal. Air recycling systems became more obvious. In some areas, large fans had been installed in the corridors to route air through the corridors apparently because the original duct work was clogged. Plumbing had also been re-routed through some of the corridors, apparently because the original interior plumbing lines had either become unusable or were being used for some other purpose. A patchwork of temporary engineering solutions had become permanent.
Broad corridors gave way to more congested corridors and foot-traffic jams, sometimes with people uncomfortably compressed. At least with the heavily armed marines, and especially with the largest two - Private First Class Sasha Soko, at 6’4” and 240 pounds, up front and Sergeant Chavez Lone Wolf, at 6’6” and 275 muscular pounds, bringing up the rear, Pel’s team was given room.
At a few very congested points, loud announcements instructed the oeast and others to stop and either move back or turn sideways to prevent people from being crushed. In many areas even Lance Corporal Petra Spitze was forced to duck and bend to get through areas that had initially been designed to walk through, but had become extremely constricted due to piping. This was not a place for anyone who had issues with claustrophobia.
The crowding thinned out as the group entered the Sacred Quarter. In part because this area was far more open in construction and in part because Pel’s group were arriving hours before the gaming events in order to go through the guided tour.
It turned out that Pel and the marines were not the only aliens at Roundabout Station as a group of 11 large, crab-like creatures, each with 4 legs and 2 very large hands, eyes on stalks in addition to antennae, were added to their tour group. It took several minutes, a fair amount of admonishments, curses, threats, and finally a bit of slapping and shoving on behalf of both Sgt. Lone Wolf and PFC Sasha Soko, as well as their oeast guides, to convince these crab-like aliens to keep their very large hands to themselves.
Throughout this ordeal, the oeast guides kept stealing glances at Pel.
“What can you tell me about these…” Pel paused to count… “17 large sculptures of heads looking down into the stadium?”
The tour had finally entered the stadium proper - a vast space with sand-covered floors - the metal ceiling apparently supported by 17 large, metal columns, each with a giant sculpted head apparently growing out of the top of the column and looking down into the stadium. Heads that looked distinctly like ferengi with small ears - ferengi females.
There had been several other displays that included similar designs and the oeast tour guides had already appeared disconcerted to have a member of the tour who so closely resembled the “Teachers” as they were referred to.
“The games were taught to us and originally sponsored by the Teachers,” replied one of the guides. “With physical competition, we reach the greatest possible expression of our forms. The teachers were very small in stature, but were so skilled in physical combat that they could take down even the oules. The goal of sacred combat was not to kill, but to subdue and control. In learning to master others, we achieve mastery of ourselves.”
“I am interested in these teachers,” said Pel. “Is there a database or some information store where I could learn more about them?”
All of the oeast were now looking at Pel in open wonderment. Pel’s superior hearing picked up the sound of one in the back whispering to another: “It’s a test…”
“It is not a test,” Pel responded, alarming the guide who had been whispering. “You are not the only ones who have noticed the resemblance. He touched the edges of his ears. My people developed faster than light travel a very long time ago. If some of them came to this place, they would have been very, very far from home.”
“I must speak to the keepers of the Sacred Texts,” said one of the guides. “They will be very interested in your presence here. Until then, we have arrived at your boxes, so please, enjoy the games.”
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